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Start-Up Breweries to Know

Jordan Mackay | Photo: Courtesy of Biergarten | October 18, 2012

In terms of brewing, the Bay Area is truly the land of beer and honey. In addition to so-called gypsy brewers, quality breweries are springing up all over. Here are eight more new ones to keep tabs on.

Heretic
(Pittsburg)
For years, the local home-brew community celebrated the work of Jamil Zainasheff. Now the rest of us can drink his complex, balanced Belgian-style beers.

Sante Adairius Rustic Ales
(Capitola)
Served from its limitedhours tasting room in Capitola are strange but- delicious quaffs such as the Adjunct Professor, an imperial stout aged with cherries in pinot noir barrels.

101 North Brewing Company
(Petaluma)
Just getting going, this highly anticipated brewery is spearheaded by Joel J. Johnson, former head brewer for Bear Republic. Its first release is the Heroine IPA.

Altamont Beer Works
(Livermore)
The portfolio of the first new brewery in Livermore since Prohibition includes the unusual Cerveza Espumosa, a “sparkling beer” of wheat and blackberries.

Hermitage Brewery
(San Jose) The beers at this young brewery in San Jose are as colorful as the labels. Just as coffee is now sold as singlebean, Hermitage sells a single-hop series.

Strike Brewing
(San Jose) Founded just a year ago by a group of dedicated athletes and producing out of Hermitage Brewing, Strike may be the only local brewery with a running club. All the better to work up a thirst for its refreshing, wheat-inflected blonde ale.

Triple Voodoo
(San Francisco) This almost threeyear- old city startup represents yet another committed home brewery taking its craft to the pro level. The flagship beer is Inception, a creamy Belgian-style ale with a bright hoppy head.

Ruhstaller
(Sacramento) The ambitious pursuit of hops animates this new brewery, where the brewers are some of the few to pursue California-grown hops.